Because the emerging Asian enterprise customer will actively enhance its competitive position this year, CEOs of these organisations will be encouraged to drive transformative business projects where IT will be a key enabling factor and successful IT delivery essential to achieving desired return on investment.

IDC advises CIOs to exhibit an increased propensity to leverage external service providers to address this strategic goal.

The role of the CIO, the structure of the IT organisation, and the profile of IT staff within the organisation will change over the coming months due to several factors including increased ownership of capital expenditure (CAPEX) and operating expenditure (OPEX) budgets as well as the expansion of IT and business services sourcing.

"CIOs will need to reassess the capabilities of their current staff with a view to build an IT organisation for the future wherein resource allocation towards sourcing and commercial management, customer [internal and external] service and IT management will be top of mind," said Mayur Sahni, Senior Analyst, IT Services for IDC Asia/Pacific.